Twenty Eight Reflectors
by Rebecca Hb
Summary: G1: The 28 Reflector ficlets I wrote for a writing meme, and because I adore the underused camera triad. Genre ranges all over the place, and chapters are not necessarily related. Slash warned for in chapter titles.
1. Silly

**Silly Reflector**

# # #

Reflector smiled ever so brightly at Rumble and Frenzy as soon as he saw them. Both of them gaped and missed their next steps, stumbling not quite in unison. He tutted and patted them on their heads, then sashayed down the hall to the bridge.

He waltzed in like he owned it, bestowed a smile on a boggled Starscream, and sauntered over to Soundwave. He arranged himself artfully all around the cassette-host, trying to look helpful and sincere.

Soundwave didn't appear to notice his new paintjob when he handed up the datastick-briefing for his next assignment. Soundwave, however, had gone several weeks before noticing that Skywarp had painted him pink, so Reflector really didn't expect the cassette-host to notice his own, far more garish style.

"What," Starscream finally asked. "Is **that**?"

Reflector turned and smiled at him again. "Dazzle camouflage."

"**That** is NOT camouflage!" The Seeker howled.

"Of course it is. If you're targetting by sight, it is very much camouflage."

Starscream's wings took on a more downcast look as his shoulders slumped. "But- No one targets by sight-"

Reflector continued to smile at him.

"... You painted your mandental plates, too." Starscream regarded him with a sort of creeping horror. "Just... stop smiling. Now."

The camera's smile grew a little wider.

"... You're trying to break me, aren't you?"

"No."

"I won't be broken!" With that, Starscream drew himself up haughtily and deliberately turned away from Reflector.

Soundwave tilted his head down to look at Reflector, then back up at Starscream. "Useful."

"I thought so," agreed Reflector. "If it makes even the Air Commander of the Decepticons not look at me, then it's sure to be quite a boon against the Autobots."

"AGH!"

The two spies shared three grins and an amused thrum at Starscream's screech.

**End**


	2. Naughty

**Naughty Reflector**

# # #

Reflector rarely allowed other people to take a picture of him. It helped his mystique if people had no idea what to expect about him. It helped him to get into fortified holds better if the Autobots had no idea what he looked like. After all, he was a very non-descript little trio of robots.

He did his level best to suppress the special centerfold in one of the security 'zines he subscribed to. It shouldn't have been hard. He wasn't really pinup quality like Jazz or Red Alert, nor did he have that special something (an embedded sound file) that Soundwave did. But for some reason, that three-way kiss with himself proved very hard to get rid of.

He built viruses to destroy copies, bribed the editors of the 'zine to turn over all of their copies of the image to him, bribed and sometimes killed archive owners for their copies, and generally made life unpleasant for people who couldn't at least lie to save their lives.

That didn't stop it, though, and he was getting rather neurotic about the picture when Optimus Prime launched the Ark.

Four million years later, when he once again set foot on Cybertron, he was quite pleased to find the picture forgotten and dismissed. Times had changed, and he had his anonymity back.

Then a nameless someone slipped a full, glossy printout of it under Skywarp's door.

**End**


	3. Kick Ass

**Kick Ass Reflector**

# # #

"Get him! Get the spyin' runt!"

Reflector raced down the corridors of the Autobase, sensors all ablaze including the actives. Having those up gave him a nice real-time view of the environment and cut through most of the base's internals to identify what was an Autobot and what was a power-generator. Of course, they also let anyone with half a functioning processor track him.

He grinned as he spotted an intersection up ahead. A door opened as he ran past; he skipped back and dodged around an Autobot that tried to tackle him. The component that got ahead took off down the right fork, while the other shot the Autobot in the shoulder and took off down the left fork. The Autobots split in half to chase him, more and more answering the security director's alarm.

Laser blasts sprayed after him, and Reflector dove around a corner, grinned at the Autobot he met there, kicked his wrist to send his shot high, and dove between his legs. He rolled, came up in a crouch behind the turning car'former, and shot him. He took off before the body hit the floor.

His other component was having a slightly harder time of it. Someone had actually managed to nail him - quite literally. Three spikes barely longer than his body from back-to-front pinned him to the wall. Was going to hurt like a glitch to pull himself off. Still...

He smiled at the Autobots heading towards him at a much more sedate pace than previously, pressed the bottom of his feet against the wall, and shoved himself forward.

Back in the secure, _empty_ command center, a maintenance panel in the wall was carefully drawn back, and the third Reflector component slipped inside.

**End**


	4. Turned On: Slash

**Turned-On Reflector**

# # #

Reflector adjusted the angle of the mirror slightly and smirked. It showed Starscream perfectly as Astrotrain worshipped him with his mouth. Every quiver of those white wings, every subtle gyration of his hips, the ecstastic expression on his dark face - everything.

Three days of work with mirrors and skullduggery to arrange a chain that would let him observe Starscream's lab had been... well worth the effort. Certainly, only one of his components could fit into the vents at a time, but he couldn't multi-task very effectively if all three of him were here. After all, the one spying on Starscream couldn't let himself overload.

... Not even when Astrotrain swept one worktable clean with one hand and shoved Starscream down onto it with the other. Watching the jet's sky-blue hands dance across Astrotrain's wings... mmm. And look at the way shadows fell on them, the pattern made by their bodies amid the dim lights.

One hand drifted down to focus his lenses, and the component in the vents didn't quite shiver as the sensation fed back into him. No, no motions for this part of him. That would ruin the mirror-angle.

Something black and stealthy placed its paws on the back of his thighs, then lowered itself down and shimmied up along his back. Ravage only stopped when he could lay his head alongside Reflector's, the base of his jaw resting on the component's shoulder. He made not a sound, merely flicked his tail against the back of Reflector's thighs. But his optics were bright as sin as he too watched what the mirror showed.

**End**


	5. Dancing

**Dancing Reflector**

# # #

Reflector provided his own percussion accompaniment to the bold, brassy notes of Constructicon trumpets. Six hands clapped together as he danced, matching the beat Long Haul set. It didn't vary much, except when Mixmaster tried to take over and the two Constructicons got into a trumpet battle and eventually a yelling match about who was doing which part.

He spun himself out then spun back in and dipped. One leg went up then came back down gratefully, and he was spun out again. He stole himself away with a smirk and dared himself to get him back.

Then evidently Hook found a discrepency in this attempt at the song, and Bonecrusher had to try to stuff a trumpet down his throat.

**End**


	6. Happy: Slash

**Happy Reflector**

# # #

As expected, Skywarp and Thundercracker left organizing the handfasting up to him. So long as he gave them a range of choices on any given decision, such as the location, they didn't actually bother to hunt up their own options to offer. This meant, for instance, that all of the locations they had to choose from were stunningly picturesque.

He did not bring the gift registry up with Skywarp at all. As he pointed out to Thundercracker, the blue Seeker knew him well enough to point out what he would both want and should be allowed to have. Thundercracker didn't mention the gift registry to Skywarp either, well aware that the dark Seeker wouldn't realize there was one. Neither Seeker had ever handfasted before, after all, and they were so busy, busy with this latest offensive. Unlike certain people, they couldn't be in three places at once.

Thundercracker did not look at the gift registry after telling Reflector what to put on it. So the blue Seeker didn't get a chance to revel in the sheer number and variety of high-quality lenses listed.

He probably wouldn't have, anyway. But Reflector was inviting the Constructicons and quite certain at least _one_ of them would get him a set of lenses.

**End**


	7. Dominant: Slash

**Dominant Reflector**

# # #

"Say my name." Reflector gripped Thundercracker's chin carefully, keeping the golden node on his palm from touching the Seeker's metal. Negative stimulus for doing the right thing would rather ruin his efforts.

Thundercracker trembled slightly, obviously not trusting the camera's dexterity. Really, didn't he know that moving like that would make it _harder_ for Reflector to not hurt him? Even the slightest bit of metal in contact with the palm-node would cause all the nearby pain sensors to begin firing at full power.

"Reflector," he breathed.

"Good, good." The parts of Reflector behind him rubbed Thundercracker's wings. The Seeker purred and shifted on his knees to put just the right portion of his wings under those dextrous hands.

Reflector tightened his grip on the Seeker's chin in warning. "Thundercracker..."

The jet froze, his optics just a touch too bright as he braced for pain.

Reflector smirked and brushed Thundercracker's face with the back of his hand. "I like this game."

"It's got its points," Thundercracker muttered. His optics dimmed as the component in front of him stepped back. Obviously, the game was over.

One of the components behind him touched one golden palm-node to the Seeker's wing. Reflector laughed very softly as the Seeker screamed; the game was never over until the interrogator got tired of playing.

"You can call for Skywarp whenever you want," he reminded Thundercracker when the jet stopped screaming. That had been one of the stipulations Reflector put into their little game; Thundercracker could get 'rescued' whenever he wanted to be. The camera had a much more realistic grasp on what he could and could not do as an interrogator, after all.

"No," he whimpered. "I can handle this."

Reflector tilted his heads slightly. "I really don't think you can. Skywarp!"

A flare of purple, and there was the dark Seeker to comfort Thundercracker. Reflector left them to it, stripping the ribbon devices from his hands as he went.

**End**


	8. Jealous: Slash

**Jealous Reflector**

# # #

"He means nothing to them."

"And vice-versa," Reflector muttered as he stared at the images on the security monitors. Some of the screens were frozen on particular points in the escapade, some looping through entire chunks of time, and all of the central ones were devoted to a real-time showing of the Seeker trine's aerial display. Thundercracker, Skywarp, Starscream... They fit together so very well, didn't they, so much better than a camera or a cassette-player could with a jet.

Soundwave leaned over his shoulder and pointed at one particular screen, where a loop played of Starscream thoroughly kissing Skywarp.

"Interesting," The camera-component in the security center said. The component back in his quarters screamed and threw another framed picture at the wall. The one on the bridge with Megatron smiled in satisfaction as the glass shattered and the frame bent.

**End**


	9. On Vacation

**On Vacation Reflector**

# # #

"I thought you were on leave," Rumble commented as one of the Reflector components passed him and Frenzy in the corridor.

He- it- _he_ paused briefly. It was weird trying to think of the right pronoun for a three-in-one geek like him. "I am."

"Then what are you doing still hanging around here? And are those reports?" Frenzy snatched the box of datasticks out of Reflector's hands, grabbed one at random, and plugged it into his arm. "They are reports!"

Rumble just shook his head. "You're doing reports while you're on leave?"

"They needed to be done..." The component trailed off at the looks the cassetticons gave him.

Frenzy tossed the box of reports to Rumble and grabbed Reflector by the waist. The camera-component meeped as he got thrown over the cassetticon's shoulder like a sack of batteries. "We're going to a bar."

"But- My reports-"

"You can do them when you run out of leave. We're going to show you how to have _real_ fun."

# # #

In a hot oil shop, another component smiled and listened to discussions on the latest in visual arts. Elsewhere, the third component sniggered quietly over his 'zines while Rumble and Frenzy bought the first one-third of him drinks. He loved going on leave.

**End**


	10. Transforming

**Transforming Reflector**

# # #

"What about this one?" The young man picked up a small, innocuous-looking camera from among all the others displayed. "It looks simple enough."

The salesman was too well-trained to let his face drop. Extra features meant extra money, after all, and while he didn't work on commission, he was more likely to get a good raise for selling the higher-priced models. Funny, he didn't recall seeing that one before. "If I may?"

The customer handed it to him carefully, having already been advised of the store's "you break it, you buy it" policy.

The salesman turned the camera over and began to point out features. "Very high-quality lenses, as you can see, with a great focus. Not too responsive, not too difficult to change. This one's digital, too, so you don't have to worry about film, just the memory. We've got a wide selection of extra memory available so you'll be able to find an exact match for this camera if you choose to buy it."

With a nod, the customer took the camera back. "Nice size, too. Some of those other cameras were so small I was worried about dropping them accidentally."

"Mm."

"Built-in flash, too. I hope the manual's good. I'm such a clutz with flashes."

"Mm."

The customer turned to look at the display, trying to find the price for his camera. "Uh, hey, where's the price?"

The camera shivered slightly then seemed to jump out of his hand. The customer yelped at the thought of paying for the broken camera, the salesman yelped as it split into three distinct portions and transformed into a robot. "I am not for sale."

**End**


	11. Horny: Slash

**Horny Reflector**

# # #

"Kiss him now," Reflector commanded.

Thundercracker was only too happy to oblige; he kissed Skywarp hard, the dark jet moaning into his mouth.

Water from the lagoon they stood in lapped at their thighs as they shifted. Late afternoon sunlight shone off the water and the jets, shadows from the obstructing willows flirting around their legs. The dell they occupied was surrounded on all sides by mountains. It was perfectly out of the way, even though Reflector insisting they do it on the ground made everything a little kinky.

Somehow, Thundercracker couldn't quite bring himself to care with his arms full of Skywarp.

# # #

Rumble was not used to being pounced on by a frenzied camera component or being dragged back to his lair for shaggings. Very different from what he usually got, since Reflector was very, very visual-dominant, and most cassettes leaned towards audial-dominant. Still, a lot of the tactile responses were the same, and a quiet partner could be just as rewarding as a screamer.

He purred and patted Reflector's shoulder. "Where's the rest of you, anyway?"

"Busy." Reflector smirked and cupped his cheek. "Like you're about to be."

"... What do you- Eep!"

# # #

Reflector sat quietly in the vents, watching Breakdown and Dead End 'polish' each other. There was certainly polish involved, at least, but somehow he didn't expect most people to take their positions as indicative of simple grooming. Still, the sight of Breakdown on top was... mmm, yes.

**End**


	12. Playing With Kids

**Playing With Kids Reflector**

# # #

"Mama?"

Reflector looked over his shoulders in irritation at the trio of spy-planes. "Only on a technicality am I your mother. Do not call me that."

Runaround grinned and held up a camera-mantis drone. It chittered in his arms, and its legs wiggled as the camantid was held out over nothing. "Lookit what Scrapper made!"

"Impressive."

Trigger held out his own activation-day gift: a finely crafted sniper rifle. "Commander Megatron commissioned this for me. He thinks I'm a very good shot."

Reflector nodded. "You are."

Trigger preened and subspaced his new rifle. He was developing quite a gun collection, and Reflector wondered if he would have to get expanded pockets soon to keep all of them.

Monitor carried an odd little pack that covered the front of his chest. He opened it, hauled out a blue cassette and tossed it to the ground. It transformed into a feline-transformer as it fell, landing on its feet. "She's from Soundwave. Her name's SCSI."

Reflector frowned. "You're not becoming a cassette-host."

Monitor nodded and held out his arms for the cassette-cat to jump into. She leapt and transformed, and he put her back in her carrying case. "I know, I know, Mum."

The camantid got unceremoniously dropped onto Runaround's shoulder and left to fend for itself in terms of staying attached to him. "Will you play cards with us, Mama?"

"No."

"Please!" Runaround dropped to his knees and clutched at one of Reflector's waists. His son had no shame, really. "You're just the _best_ at the game, and no one is anywhere near as good as us back on Cybertron, and the dads won't play with us because we clean them out, and-!"

"Stop."

Runaround shut his mouth. Trigger opened his.

The camera raised a hand to forestall his words. "If you are especially good, and I survive this next mission."

"Yay!"

Reflector shook his heads at the antics that produced. Jets.

**End**


	13. Bath Time

**Bath Time Reflector**

# # #

Ravage gave them very explicit orders to take Reflector out of the ship and keep him away until the next day. He'd left the how up to Rumble and Frenzy, since he had his own hows to worry about it.

For reasons that weren't terribly clear to either cassette, this led to them trying to drown- ah, _bathe_ Reflector. In a natural mountain lake. Quite against his will. Which was why it could be easily mistaken for a drowning gone horribly wrong. Or a game of watery whack-a-camera that the cassettes seemed to be losing, as one Reflector component had shimmied up a tree and was shooting at them.

Well, had been shooting at them before Megatron came along and demanded an explanation.

Trust us, boss, those "innocent" little cassetticon faces said. We know what we're doing.

Behind his hologram of Megatron, Hound facepalmed.

**End**


	14. Well Shagged: Slash

**Well Shagged Reflector**

# # #

"That was good," Reflector informed the ceiling. The ceiling, quite normally, did not reply. It was possible that Reflector, in his current state, wouldn't have thought there was anything wrong with the ceiling if it had replied.

He rubbed a face against a hip, one pair of arms wrapped around that given pair of hips. Another pair of arms toyed at one of his throats, picking at the joints that made it flexible. He purred softly and nuzzled himself.

"Very good."

"Oh yes."

He lay all a'tangled on his berth, grey hands still softly moving over his bodies. His dim optics fluttered up and down activation levels, shifting from mere low-light visual spectrum to his more normal infrared-ultraviolet-visual spectrum.

"I have a duty-shift in half an hour," he sighed.

"Time enough to clean up."

"I suppose."

**End**


	15. Naive

**Naive Reflector**

# # #

Reflector sat in a corner of the medical ward, carefully rebuilding one of his arms. He was still unsure as to his capabilities and had let the situation with the fliers get out of hand. Winning the bet, despite getting his arm cracked open, seemed to impress them, but he found it all rather counter-productive. He could have earned their respect more easily just by surviving his missions.

It was late, and the downtime-duty technician had learned to ignore him when he came sneaking in. Two strangers also sat in the med-bay, a cassette-host and one of his cassettes. The 'host worked at the cassette-bird's back, adjusting his wings from what Reflector could see.

He wondered what brought them out here. The front wasn't anywhere near this sector, but that could change in a moment. Might even change because of these two. Strangely, that thought didn't bother him as much as it ought to.

He kept four of his optics on the task with his arm and two surreptitiously on the cassette-host. A spy, he had to be, and wasn't that what Reflector did with himself? The camera would be a poor spy indeed if he didn't find out what brought the 'host into his sector of operations.

The cassette-bird flapped its wings then transformed and returned to its 'host. Then the dark blue spy turned towards Reflector. "You are brothers?"

He had a very melodious voice, Reflector noted, as he lifted his heads. "No, I am not."

The cassette-host nodded. His visor did not flash as people's usually did when Reflector denied seperate identities, nor did the inflection in his voice change. "Allow me to repair your arm."

"No." Reflector didn't hesitate to decline. Everytime Skydive or Stalker had touched his systems, he had wound up hurt and disoriented for hours. While all the little adjustments they had made were proving quite beneficial, he never wanted to end up in that condition again. No one around here knew more than the basics of how he worked, and he planned to keep it that way.

Still, if the 'host had perhaps asked him for something else... He tried to shake the small smile from his faces, but it kept creeping back on.

"It would be no trouble."

"Your offer is most gracious, but I must decline." He didn't know why he phrased that quite so politely. It wouldn't do to offend someone more powerful than him, certainly, but that was rather more... flowery than he what usually went with.

The downtime-duty technician shook his head. "Soundwave, sir, your harmonics are interfering with the scanners in here. If we get any trouble, I'll need you to leave."

Reflector froze for an infinitesmal fraction of a second. Then he carefully packed up his tools and headed for the door. He could finish the job safe in his own quarters-

"Wait."

He turned one head towards the cassette-host. "Yes?"

"Remain with me."

"No." It took all of his willpower to get out of that room, and he cowered in his quarters for hours afterwards.

**End**


	16. On His Knees

**On-His-Knees Reflector**

# # #

He felt the shot that ended his life and convulsively dropped to his knees. System feedback from the death upset his fuel control systems, among many others, and he expelled glowing pink chips on the floor. He shuddered and wrapped his arms around his torso, rocking back and forth.

Reflector had died. One component- a sniper's head shot- The sudden systemshock caused a cascade failure. The feedback from one cascade failure was threatening to induce two others. He fought to hold on as best he could, but everything he did seemed to send his systems tumbling out of control even faster.

If he hadn't lost control the moment he died, he would have waited before doing this. The sudden loss of one-third of his mind prevented him from seeing him as others saw him - collapsed, dreadfully weakened, ripe for removing.

One Seeker even dared to step forward, the tip of his arm-gun glowing with an unreleased blast. He ignored the pitter-patter of little cassetticon feet entering the room. "Today's our lucky day, eh?"

In response, a pile-driver came crashing down on his foot. It _crunched_ like armor shouldn't, and the Seeker howled.

"Hey, boss, found the other one!" Rumble yelled.

A subtle hum filled the room as Soundwave swept in. He surveyed the jets without a word, then took up the camera-component in his arms. Perhaps his hum grew a little more obvious then, but none of the Seekers would ever mention it. As he walked away, one of the jets could have sworn he saw the tape-lord gently stroke the camera's jawline.

Rumble trotted out at Soundwave's heels, chattering merrily about getting a new brother.

**End**


	17. Greedy

**Greedy Reflector**

# # #

Reflector rather liked Swindle. It was an arm's distance enjoyment of a promising journeyman; not that Swindle would wind up anywhere near the camera's line of work if he knew what was good for him. Two master blackmailers were more than enough for one Decepticon ship.

Reflector also liked Vortex, though that was purely professional. The helicopter was good at his job, something Reflector didn't always get the luxury of dealing with.

Still and all, as much as he liked the pair of them, he didn't like their brothers, and Swindle had yet to come up with a good reason why he shouldn't take his little recording to Megatron. "Threats just upset me, Swindle, and only one of me is here." He crossed his arms. "I've already named a perfectly reasonable price."

"Come on, Fleccy! That's more than twice your usual rate!"

The camera-component shrugged eloquently. He knew **exactly** how much the Combaticons were worth, and if Swindle felt like it, he could pay Reflector's fee out of hand. He seemed to want to play silly games with his brothers, though. A pity, as any damage Reflector took would drive up the price. If he just paid like a smart little Decepticon... Well, then Reflector would identify him as a moderately easy mark, but his brothers would make the effort to blackmail him more trouble than it was worth most of the time.

Swindle did have a point about the price, but that was just a side-effect of anticipating Swindle bringing the rest of his gestalt into their deal. He didn't want to teach them that they could get away with hurting him instead of paying him. So he'd taken another mech into the partnership. Soundwave wouldn't get paid if Reflector didn't successfully convince Swindle that it was better to pay him off than to maul him, but if Reflector got mauled, Soundwave had no reason to keep the information to himself. A win-win scenario for both of them, really. "That's not my problem, Swindle."

"But-"

"And the price will go up if Brawl lays so much as a fingertip on me." Reflector smiled at both Swindle and Brawl, thoroughly revelling in being able to be in three places at once. He'd said that with both mouths, so what the tank did now... Well, on his own head be it.

Reflector was greedy, yes, but he was rarely stupid.

**End**


	18. Excited

**Excited Reflector**

# # #

Prowl had a headache.

Saving hapless humans from a Decepticon was not supposed to involve said Decepticon talking loud and fast about his legal rights and how the Autobots had wrecked a perfect photo-shoot. He couldn't even just arrest the Decepticon to make him shut up, as Reflector had pointed out that he wasn't doing anything illegal at all. He was a contracted fashion photographer working for an up-and-coming fashion magazine. Perfectly legal work, even if the person doing it was an alien machine.

Prowl had his doubts and had asked Chip Chase to look into this magazine while he and the Lamborghini twins handled Reflector.

"-Are you even listening to me?"

"Yes, Reflector." The Datsun cycled air in a sigh, drawing a few odd looks from the models. The Lamborghinis quickly reoccupied their attention, though; Sideswipe and Sunstreaker sat in vehicle-mode and were being fussed over something awful. He'd never get their egos back down to manageable sizes if they stayed here much longer.

"Then **why** are you people **harrassing** me and interrupting my perfectly _legal_ work?" One of the camera's components, well, flailed. A more polite person might have phrased it as gesticulating wildly. (The other two circled the Lamborghini twins constantly, red optics flashing and flashing. It unnerved the Datsun.)

"You're a Decepticon," Prowl pointed out tiredly.

"IT'S NOT ILLEGAL TO BE A DECEPTICON!"

"Eep!" All the girls startled at that shout; the vivacious, chubby blonde dressed in a white overcoat pressed back against Sideswipe. It was a picture perfect moment.

"Kaye! Hold that pose!" One of the other Reflector components snapped out. The girl froze obediently, and his red optics flashed briefly. "You may move now."

The component in front of Prowl smiled suddenly. "A thought occurred to me, friend Autobot..."

It always went to slag when they started calling you 'friend', Prowl thought with a creeping sense of dread. "What do you want, Decepticon?"

"Why, I just want to add you to the photo-shoot. A lovely, polished police Datsun like yourself would be just perfect, especially with Laurie draped over your hood. You help me out here, and I don't call my lawyer, and neither of us get dragged into a precedent-setting court battle about the work rights of Transformers in these United States." All three of Reflector just _smiled_ up at Prowl.

**End**


	19. Exploring

**Exploring Reflector**

# # #

The asteroid-city had non-Euclidean geometry. This made Reflector's heads hurt, even with constantly pointing out that the effect was due to so many propability weapons and reality anchors in such close proximity. Since he had no real clear idea what either of those items were, he would just have to take their guide's word for the matter.

Their guide, whom they'd dubbed Whistler from the first for the way he talked, somewhat resembled a Quintesson. It was five-sided and symmetrical and did have tentacles on the bottom. On the other hand, it also had a rather starfish-ish head. Sort of. If you applied some interesting filters. It was closer to a starfish-shape than to an anything else shape.

Whistler had agreed at gun-point to show them to this place's control room. Galvatron- No, Reflector corrected himself, _Cyclonus_ thought this place could be used to attack the Autobots. Galvatron had very quietly started gibbering as soon as he saw the place and was still sitting in Astrotrain right now.

The camera-con had wandered off from the main party as soon as he could. He wanted a better idea of what they were dealing with, and he didn't trust guides held at gun-point.

To be utterly fair, though, this felt like the times when he memorized technical diagrams for people. He could accurately render the place in a variety of cartographic methods, but he had not the _slightest_ idea what any of it was for. On the other hand, there was a good chance no one else did, either. On the third hand, Whistler just might. And on the fourth hand, Cyclonus was just silly enough to try to threaten him into making things work without having the slightest idea of what to do to shut off anything if the alien betrayed them all.

Reflector frowned and turned in the general direction of back towards the ship. He didn't want to be out in the spires when the mud hit the propeller. Straight lines and normal angles didn't work very well around here, but he ought to be able to make it to where he was going so long as he didn't think too hard about how long it should take.

**End**


	20. Caring

**Caring Reflector**

# # #

Did it get any more boring than patrol? Skywarp banked and swung along the shore, radar picking up nothing of interest. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, not even one of the human navies sent a submarine to launch torpedoes at the Decepticon ship. The hundredth time, of course, they got assaulted by unkillable sea demons.

The black jet chuckled and barrel-rolled for the sheer joy of it-

-And the shot that would have taken him in the lasercore hit his engine instead. Other blasts followed, and he instinctively teleported ahead two miles.

Skywarp cursed as he levelled out; that was Autobot weapons-fire! Okay, okay, don't panic. Radio base. They needed to know about this. Find a safe landing place and transform. Don't get cocky, just get things done right. He only had a short amount of time before the Autobots caught up with him.

/_Soundwave, you read me?_/

No answer. He couldn't get far enough away from Soundwave on this planet to keep the spook from hearing a direct hail. So, jamming. Change of plans, land now and transform as soon as possible. There was a secluded area perfect for a careful landing about three miles inland-

-He teleported right into a pair of missiles. One exploded just past his nosecone, and the other against his wing. He disabled his vocoder as he tumble-transformed through the air; no screams. No screams. Oh, Megatron, no screams! If he could just fire his boot-thrusters-

Then his remaining wing found the ground, dug into the dirt, and sent him ground-looping. No screams. He clung to that thought as he skidded face-first across the terrain, leaving a trail of wreckage behind him. The sounds his body made as intakes and armor crumpled and cockpit shattered were screams enough.

When he stopped, the black jet allowed himself a nanosecond of rest before trying to roll over.

A foot stomped down in the middle of his back, and the tip of a rifle pressed against the back of his head. "Got you, Skywarp."

Everything went white.

# # #

Skywarp woke up in the Medical Ward with Scavenger pulling ruined electronics boards out of his cockpit. Someone else with grey hands held his head steady and his shoulders down, but that was odd because that felt like six hands on one person. "Wha-?"

The Constructicon froze for a moment when he noticed Skywarp was awake, then fiddled with a few of the wires inside his chest. Everything faded into blackness.

# # #

Thundercracker was there next time. Skywarp smiled vaguely as Scrapper re-installed the electronics that belonged in his cockpit. "What happened, TC?"

The blue jet set the omnitool he'd been fiddling with down. "According to the report Reflector filed," He said, an edge of dubiousness tinging his voice. "You discovered an Autobot ambush designed for you by flying into it, got shot down by the first half of it but not stopped, correctly identified what would be the second stage, teleported there, and took out Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. You then collapsed from the damage you had taken, and the spy found you because he was returning to base at the time."

Skywarp flashed a blink. "... Huh. That's right."

Thundercracker flicked his ailerons irritably. "Yeah. Not like he's been known to lie to people's faces about how something went down."

"What, you think 'Fleccy could take those two out all by himself?" Skywarp grinned at his friend, then shrieked as Scrapper did a cold boot-up of his cockpit systems.

**End**


	21. Daring

**Daring Reflector**

# # #

"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"

Reflector glanced over at Blast Off. The shuttle had his nose angled up as the two-to-four of them, depending on who you asked, fell out of the sky. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"We're in freefall thirty-eight kilometers and counting down over the Pacific Ocean. You did this on purpose."

"You're being paranoid. Were I capable of engineering a targetted EMP to knock out our flight systems and nothing else, I wouldn't use it to skydive with." The camera continued to hold the position of a swan-dive with one of his components, the other two more interested in finding a way out of this situation than looking pretty.

"I am not paranoid," the shuttle huffed, still resolutely holding onto a proper landing angle.

"Of course not." Reflector smiled at himself, enjoying the sensations of freefall. His damage control computers gave him approximately twenty more minutes before his flight systems had repaired themselves from that failure-blast and had not even a guestimate for when his long-range radio would be repaired. "I hope we're faster than whatever knocked us out. It was heading towards the Ark."

"You saw it?" Blast Off's tone betrayed an undercurrent of surprise. Understandable, really, since it had been the backwash of radiation from the creature that knocked them out of orbit.

"I did not. I saw its trail," Reflector corrected. "At the speed it was going, it's had to circle the planet several times to slow down properly. I expect to get a good look at it next time it goes overhead."

Blast Off mulled that over. "I saw the contrails of a craft pass by thrice already. Was that him?"

"Yes. It's not obvious, of course, unless you can look into the upper ends of the electromagnetic spectrum, as well."

"Hnh."

"On the plus side, you have me, and the Autobots do not." Reflector chuckled as they continued to fall, the rush of air whipping away his voice but not his radio waves.

"What makes you think it's after the Autobots, Reflector?" Blast Off asked, and there was an edge to his question, a cutting edge.

Reflector smiled at the shuttle with all three faces. "I recognize some of the unique elements of his radiation. That's Sunstorm."

**End**


	22. Obedient: Kinky Slash

**Obedient Reflector**

# # #

Thundercracker found it very, very intimate to collar Reflector. Unlike Skywarp, who couldn't be serious about something as outre as collars and had to crack jokes, Reflector would just sit there on the edge of the berth. Tense and ready to bolt for the door at the first sign of trouble; Thundercracker could feel the trembling readiness in his energy fields.

He wondered if he could get off just by wrapping the collar around that pretty throat, tightening it slowly as it slid by micrometers against Reflector, buckling it precisely, and then nicely adjusting it so that the gleaming gold buckle rested just under the camera's chin.

And there were three of him to do this to!

Then came Reflector lying face-down on the berth while he crouched over the camera and carefully glued on to-scale U-2 wings. The wings had tiny engines in them to emulate an electrical field, but the best part of it was just seeing Reflector with wings. It tugged at his core, a pretty little dream of himself and Skywarp greeting their third as he woke up in a shiny U-2 shell. And then showing him just why being a jet was **better**.

But he'd never get Reflector to agree to that. The camera like being a camera, liked being tri-partite. The best Thundercracker could get were the wings, and he didn't get that as near as often as he liked.

He'd never realized how willful Reflector was before the camera had pursued him. Being quiet masked so much.

Thundercracker rubbed his hand down the final camera-part's spine, then surveyed his trio of pretty lovers. At least Reflector was kind enough to show him how to build a little specialty program that would take his optic input of Reflector-in-wings and change the data output into Reflector-as-U2s.

**End**


	23. Angsty

**Angsty Reflector**

# # #

Reflector turned the picture over and over in his hands. It was a rare one - someone had gotten all three of him on camera. It was also the only picture he had of himself with Skywarp and Thundercracker. Skywarp had pinned one of him against Thundercracker's back, while he and the blue Seeker played fullstasis. Thundercracker, as he recalled, had lost that game quite badly.

The picture was only five years old. He had newer ones of the two jets; he even had one from right before the Autobot City mission.

He never looked at that one.

His hands shook, and he passed the picture to another one of himself. It wasn't good to hold on so long. But out here, in the high towers at the edge of the Sea of Light, there was nothing to call his mind fully out of his memories and into the present. It was safe here. The Autobots had assured him over and over again that it was safe here, and he could help the rebuilding efforts even despite his previous allegiance.

He didn't want to be safe. He wanted to fly.

**End**


	24. Drinking Energon

**Drinking Energon Reflector**

# # #

"So, there I was, a half a thousand miles from anywhere, my transform circuits disabled, and some Autobot actually buying into my transformation-disguise for once. And he apparently had a fetish for dead Decepticon jets with their wings ripped off. I got _a lot_ of those lodged in my memory banks." Reflector sat in a rarely-used storage room, Ravage sitting on his chest. Well, only one of him did. The other two were getting smashed with Rumble and Frenzy.

The curious thing about the camera-trio, Ravage had noticed, was that overcharging made him quite garrulous... If the talkative component was away from the other two and hadn't actually imbibed any itself. This led to some very **strange** but ultimately interesting stories being told that might never have otherwise come out.

"Eventually, one of those Seekers turned out to be not so dead after all, and I stowed a ride in his cockpit when he made for our lines again. Tha's how I met Dirge the first time."

Ravage nuzzled at the base of Reflector's throat. //From your turn of phrase, presumably, there was a second time.//

"That involves a purple Seeker dame, a whip, and Ramjet. Sure you want to hear it?"

//Quite.//

**End**


	25. At the Beach

**At the Beach Reflector**

# # #

Click.

Click.

Click-click-click.

Thundercracker's optics flickered. "Skywarp! Stop playing with Reflector and get me out of this."

Skywarp lowered the camera from his standard point-and-shoot pose. "But, TC, if I don't take pictures, you're going to deny this ever happened!"

Thundercracker glanced around at where he was buried up to the neck in fine white sand, courtesy of Long Haul. "That's the idea, Skywarp."

**End**


	26. Book Reading

**Book-Reading Reflector**

# # #

Reflector peered over the top of his human-style steel-bound novels as Skywarp teleported into his room. Two of the camera components lay on the berth they left clear for sleeping, while the third was on watch. He had hoped to spend the evening with his noses in a pair of books, but this unfortunate event seemed like it would disrupt that.

The dark Seeker cast a panicked glance at Reflector's door, then slapped the locks in place. He turned to Reflector with a grin that was a little too wide for his normal happy state. "Hey, Fleccy! Whatcha reading?"

"A very bad book and a very good book," the camera answered. In the control room, his third component flipped through the ship's cameras to see what it was that Skywarp had done **now**. "I could read them aloud if you like."

The Seeker, if possible, looked even more panicked than when he had teleported into the room. "Uh, no thanks, Fleccy. Trying to follow two different stories at once ain't for me."

Reflector nodded, while his third continued to flip through the cameras. Ah, there was something. "What did you do to bother Onslaught?"

"Nothing important, don't worry about it." Skywarp grinned, his optics just a little too bright. "It's not my fault he can't take a joke."

Reflector glanced down at one of his books again. "If he comes around here with violent intentions, I am going to have to start reading to him about the Harvard professor of religious symbology, and he will go insane. That would likely make Megatron unhappy."

"He doesn't know where I went!" Skywarp protested at the unsaid threat.

"Good. I'm going to read. There's an access terminal over there. Go play your MMORPG or something."

Skywarp just chuckled.

**End**


	27. Disheveled

**Disheveled Reflector**

# # #

"Your lens-cap is-" Thundercracker broke off what he was about to say as the camera turned on all three of his heels and glared. "... I'm sure you know about it already."

"Yes," Reflector said. His lens-cap was cracked clean in half, with a small chunk missing from the lower edge. All three of the camera components were dripping mud and sludge on the floor, and one of them was limping. He still managed to stalk around in high dudgeon, though, so Thundercracker didn't think he was all that broken.

Of course, there was the question of where his companion had gotten to. Skywarp had stolen out of their quarters with Reflector yesterday and hadn't returned since.

"Ah, where's Skywarp?" The jet asked tentatively.

Reflector turned sharply, snatched up a lead pipe that Skywarp had for Primus alone knew what reason, and hurled it at Thundercracker. "In the Medical Ward!"

Thundercracker winced as his instinctive duck made the pipe hit inside of his intake and reached up to pull it out. "... Did you put him there?"

Reflector threw another pipe and stormed off towards the washrack.

**End**


	28. Exhausted: Mild Slash

**Exhausted Reflector**

# # #

"Aw, is the poor ickle camerakins tired? Is he, is he, is he?" Skywarp cooed sickeningly as he poked at the camera triad. Behind him, Thundercracker poked curiously at one of the camantids, causing it to chitter.

Reflector had an arm flung across each set of optics, and he lay prone on his recharge berth, wires plugged into his sides. Processing visual data gave him a headache - the new technique of Scrapper's did **not** thrill him in that regard. Of course, the alternative would have been for the camera-spy to get his very own marker in the Decepticon Crypt so he hardly at room to complain.

Hardly having room, however, was a situation he worked very well in.

"Hey!" There was a small scuffle right next to his berth, and evidently Thundercracker won it as the blue jet knelt down next to his bed and started talking softly.

"Hey, Reflector. You all right?"

"I function." He would never admit to weakness to the two of them. He didn't trust them **that** much.

There was a moment of silence. "So, you feel like slag warmed over. Hnh." He drummed his fingers against Reflector's lens-cap, making a tiny current flicker through all of the camera's diodes. "Guess you're not really in the mood for anything right now."

Reflector shook his head sadly. "Go and fly. I'm going to be here until I'm back on duty."

Another silence, then Thundercracker pressed an awkward kiss to the central component's throat. "Yeah, sure." There was a rustle of metal as he stood up. "C'mon, Skywarp. Let him sleep."

"But-"

Thundercracker growled, and Skywarp eeped quietly.

"Oh. Yeah. Sure, TC. Night, Fleccy!"

Reflector allowed himself a small smile as the door hissed shut behind them. He'd wanted Skywarp from the first, but he had to admit that Thundercracker was a very key and gratifying balance. He'd have to give the blue jet a thorough wing-polish when this was all done with.

**End**


End file.
